Investment Funds, Asset Management & IPOs

Cyprus has created a significant industry of investment services thanks to its pioneering legislation, its favourable tax system and the wealth of skilled, knowledgeable and experienced professionals. Many investment services from abroad have chosen Cyprus as their main basis from which to offer their investment advice and services to their clients in all parts of the world.

Over the years Cyprus has implemented the EU’s Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID) in national law, most recently in the Investment Services and Activities Regulated Markets Law of 2007, Law 144(I)/2007. This new legal framework make Cyprus a very attractive place for establishing a Cyprus Investment Firm (CIF), with which to provide investors and businesses a “single passport” to provide investment services across the European Union. Cyprus has managed to build on its significant advantages of having one of the lowest corporate tax rates in the European Union and one of the most developed and efficient services industry in Europe, so as to offer with the Cyprus Investment Firm a unique vehicle for investment activities both in the European Union and in the world.

The recent enactment of the Alternative Investment Funds Law of 2014 has admittedly contributed significantly to the modernisation of Cyprus’s investment funds regime and has harmonized it with the latest EU directives on asset management, with a focus on transparency and investor protection. This new legislation has created the new undertaking of the Alternative Investment Fund, a very useful, flexible and efficient investment fund vehicle with structuring options entailing multiple, distinct investment policies for different assets and potentially higher liquidity and marketability, as public offerings of the shares of this new undertaking are now allowed to take place in addition to private placements.

Our Investment Funds Team has assisted and has advised many foreign individuals and corporations in obtaining a CIF authorisation from the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) and in complying with all the statutory filing deadlines and requirements of the local legislation relating to investment funds and asset management.

Our Team has also been involved, along with the Corporate Law and Shipping Teams, with the listing for the first time on the Cyprus Stock Exchange of the shares of a shipping company. We are in a position to advise on all aspects of Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) that relate to the Cyprus Stock Exchange and offer legal support in complying with the various procedures and strict statutory demands of the Cypriot Stock Exchange legislation and regulations.